m 

no.  Q 


14 


GIFT 


Papers  from  the  Historical  Seminary 
of  Brown  University 

Edited  by  J.  FRANKLIN  JAMESON,  Ph.  D.,  Professor  of  History 


II 


THE  EARLY  HISTORY  OF  THE  COLONIAL 


POST-OFFICE 


BY 


MARY    E.  WOOLLEY 


REPRINTED  FROM  THE  PUBLICATIONS  OF  THE 
RHODE  ISLAND  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 


PROVIDENCE,    R.    I. 
I894 


Papers  from  the  Historical  Seminary 
of  Brown  University 

Edited  by  J.  FRANKLIN  JAMESON,  Ph.  D.,  Professor  of  History 


II 

THE  EARLY  HISTORY  OF  THE  COLONIAL 
POST-OFFICE 


BY 

MARY    E.  WOOLLEY 


REPRINTED  FROM  THE  PUBLICATIONS  OF  THE 
RHODE  ISLAND  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 


PROVIDENCE,    R.    I. 

1894 


EARLY  HISTORY  OF  THE  COLONIAL  POST 
OFFICE. 


A  letter  written  in  1652,  by  Samuel  Symonds  of  Ipswich, 
to  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  at  Pequot,  says  :  "  I  cannot  say  but  its 
besides  my  intentions  that  I  write  not  more  frequently  unto 
you ;  I  can  onely  plead  this  for  my  excuse  (soe  farr  as  it  will 

goe) and  the  uncertainty  when  and  how  to 

convey  letters."* 

A  glance  at  the  correspondence  of  that  period  shows  that 
Mr.  Symonds  was  not  the  only  one  inconvenienced  by  the  "un 
certainty  when  and  how  to  convey  letters."  With  no  domestic 
postal  service  the  writers  of  that  day  were  dependent  upon 
individual  bearers  and  pressed  neighbors,  relatives,  mer 
chants,  sea  captains,  any  and  every  one  whom  they  could 
reach,  into  the  service.  Indians  were  often  used  as  messen 
gers.  Roger  Williams  writing  to  John  Winthrop,  at  some 
time  in  the  '3o's,  speaks  of  word  "by  this  bearer  Wequash 
whome  (being  a  Pequt  himselfe)  I  commended  for  a  guide  in 
the  Pequt  expedition ;"  again,  "I  pray  let  your  servant  direct 
the  native  with  this  letter ;"  and  at  still  another  time, 
"From your  owne  hand  (by  Robin  Causasenamont)."f 

John  Endicott  writes  to  John  Winthrop,  April  13,  1638  : 
"Your  kinde  lines  I  receaued  by  Mascanomet ;  "  and  a  letter 
from  the  Isle  of  Wight  (near  Long  Island),  dated  "Aprill  27, 
1650,"  says,  "  I  resavid  yours  by  the  Indian.  "J 

*Mass.  Historical  Collections,  4th  Series,  Vol.  VII.,  p.  128. 

^Mass.  Historical  Collections,  4th  Series,  Vol.  VI.,  pp.  242,  256,  276. 

\Mass.  Historical  Collections,  4th  Series,  Vol.  VII. 


Until  1639  there  is  no  trace  of  a  postal  system,  but  under 
the  Massachusetts  General  Court  Records,  of  that  year*  (Nov. 
5th),  is  the  following  entry:  "For  preventing  the  miscarriage 
of  letters,  ...  It  is  ordered  that  notice  bee  given,  that  Rich 
ard  Fairbanks,  his  house  in  Boston,  is  the  place  appointed  for 
all  letters,  which  are  brought  from  beyond  the  Seas,  or  are  to 
be  sent  thither  ;  .  .  .  .  are  to  be  brought  unto  him  and  he  is 
to  take  care,  that  they  bee  delivered,  or  sent  according  to  their 
directions  and  hee  is  alowed  for  every  such  letter  id.  and 
must  answer  all  miscarriages  through  his  owne  neglect  in 
this  kind  ;  provided  that  no  man  shall  bee  compelled  to  bring 
his  letters  thither  except  hee  please." 

This  action  on  the  part  of  the  Massachusetts  General  Court 
was,  as  far  as  can  be  discovered,  the  first  effort  by  the  colo 
nies  to  provide  a  post  office.  Eighteen  years  later,  June 
12,  1657,  an  ordinance  was  passedf  by  the  director  general 
and  council  of  the  New  Netherlands,  forbidding  the  boarding 
of  incoming  vessels  until  visited  by  the  governing  officer  and 
the  letters  delivered,  the  penalty  for  evading  the  law  being 
fixed  at  thirty  guilders.^ 

Since  private  shippers  were  in  the  habit  of  taking  letters 
from  the  New  Netherlands  and  Curagoa,  without  placing  them 
in  a  sealed  bag,  the  directors  of  the  West  India  Company,  at 
the  chamber  in  Amsterdam,  in  1659  (October  30)  adopted  a 
resolution  requiring  captains  of  vessels  to  enter  into  bond  not 
to  carry  letters  to  Holland  from  New  Netherlands  or  Curagoa, 
unless  received  from  persons  authorized  to  collect  them,  under 
penalty  of  one  hundred  Carolus  guilders ;  and  on  the  second  of 
the  following  June  (1660)  the  director  general  and  council  of 
the  colony  passed  an  ordinance  warning  citizens  to  observe 
this  resolution.  A  box  was  placed  in  New  Amsterdam,  in 
the  office  of  the  secretary  of  the  province,  for  the  receipt  of 
letters,  and  for  all  those  capable  of  registry,  three  stivers 
in  wampum  were  to  be  paid.  These  movements  on  the  part 
of  Massachusetts  and  New  Netherlands  concerned  foreign 

*Mass.  Colonial  Records,  I.,  p.  281.  Mass.  Historical  Collections,  3d  Series, 
Vol.  VII.,  p.  48. 

fLaws  and  Ordinances  of  New  Netherlands. 

JLaws  and  Ordinances  of  New  Netherlands,  pp.  379,  380. 


letters  simply ;  until  1672  there  were  apparently  no  arrange 
ments  for  the  transmission  and  delivery  of  domestic  letters. 
In  December  of  that  year,  there  was  an  effort  to  start  a 
monthly  post  between  New  York  and  Boston,  a  project  origi 
nating  with  Francis  Lovelace,  governor  of  New  York.  In  a 
letter  to  John  Winthrop,  governor  of  Connecticut,  dated  De 
cember  27,  1672,  he  says  :*  "  I  herewith  present  you  with  2 
rarities,  a  pacquett  of  the  latest  intelligence  I  could  meet 

withal,    and  a  post by  the  latter  you  will  meet 

with  a  monthly  fresh  supply ;  so  that  if  it  receive  but  the 
same  ardent  inclinations  as  first  it  hath  from  myself,  by  our 
monthly  advisers  all  publique  occurences  may  be  transmitted 
between  us,  together  with  severall  other  great  conveniencys 
of  publique  importance,  consonant  to  the  commands  laid  upon 
us  by  his  sacred  majestic,  who  strictly  enjoins  all  his  Ameri 
can  subjects  to  enter  into  a  close  correspondency  with  each 
other this  person  that  has  undertaken  the  employ 
ment  I  conceaved  most  proper,  being  voted  active,  stout  and 

indefatigable I  have  affixt  an  annuall  sallery  on  him, 

which,  together  with  the  advantage  of  his  letters  and  other 
small  portable  packes,  may  afford  him  a  handsome  livelyhood. 

The  maile  has  divers  baggs,  according  to  the  towns 

the  letters  are  designed  to,  which  are  all  sealed  up  'till  their 
arrivement,  with  the  seal  of  the  secretarie's  office,  whose  care 
it  is  on  Saturday  night  to  seale  them  up.  Only  by-letters  are 

in  an  open  bag,  to  dispense  by  the  wayes I  shall  only 

beg  of  you  your  furtherance  to  so  universall  a  good  work ; 
that  is,  to  afford  him  directions  where,  and  to  whom  to  make 
his  application  to  upon  his  arrival  at  Boston ;  as  likewise  to 
afford  him  what  letters  you  can  to  establish  him  in  that  em 
ployment  there.  It  would  be  much  advantageous  to  our  de- 
signe,  if  in  the  intervall  you  discoursed  with  some  of  the  most 
able  woodmen,  to  make  out  the  best  and  most  facile  way  for 
a  post,  which  in  processe  of  tyme  would  be  the  king's  best 
highway ;  as  likewise  passages  and  accommodation  at  rivers, 
fords,  or  other  necessary  places." 

The  first  post  messenger  started  from  New  York,  January  22, 
1672,  with  sworn  instructions  to  behave  civilly,  to  inquire  of 

*Brodhead,  History  of  the  State  of  New  York,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  196-98. 


Winthrop  how  to  form  the  best  post  road,  and  to  mark  the 
trees  for  the  direction  of  passengers. 

To  quote  from  the  Memorial  History  of  New  York  :*  "  It  is 
recorded  as  creating  great  excitement  in  the  little  village  of 
Harlem,  when  that  first  postman  drew  up  at  the  tavern  door 
to  refresh  himself,  as  he  undoubtedly  did,  with  some  good 
home-brewed  Harlem  beer — his 'port  mantles'  (port  man. 
teaux)  crammed  with  '  letters  and  small  portable  goods/ 
the  'locked  box'  in  the  office  of  the  colonial  secretary 
accumulating  the  next  month's  mail,  and  what  he  had  brought, 
being  carried  to  the 'coffee  house'  to  be 'well  thumbed' 
until  called  for."  Nothwithstanding  this  auspicious  beginning, 
the  project  fell  through,  probably  because  of  the  Dutch  and 
other  wars  of  the  time,  and  was  not  revived  by  this  colony 
until  1684,  when  Thomas  Dongan,  governor  of  New  York,  and 
Thomas  Treat,  governor  of  Connecticut,  conferred  concern 
ing  a  post  between  New  York  and  the  British  colonies  as  far 
as  Boston. f 

In  the  meantime  Massachusetts  had  taken  up  the  question 
again, \  the  general  court  on  January  6,  167^,  ordering  that 
post  messengers,  who  had  previously  received  no  stated  allow 
ance,  should  thereafter  receive  ^d.  a  mile  in  money  and  full 
satisfaction  for  the  expenses  of  man  and  beast.  || 

In  1677  (June  i),  further  action  was  taken,  the  general 
court,  in  response  to  a  petition  of  sundry  merchants  of  Bos 
ton^  appointing  John  Hayward,  scrivener,  to  "take  in  and 
convey  letters  according  to  the  direction  ;"  evidently  there 
was  more  than  one  candidate,  and  one  account  poetically 
says  of  the  court's  decision:  "It"1  Richard  May  suggested 
John  Hayward  selected."  The  same  year  (October  8,  1674), 
the  general  court  of  Connecticut,  meeting  at  Hartford,^]"  gave 
specific  instructions  regarding  the  allowance  for  post  riders  ; 
from  Rye  to  Hartford,  I2s.  for  the  expenses  of  the  horse,  and 

* Memorial  History  of  N.  Y.,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  355-56. 

\Brodhead,  History  of  N.  Y.,  Vol.  II.,  p.  413. 

\Mass.  Historical  Collections,  3d  Series,  Vol.  VII.,  p.  49. 

\\Mass.  Historical  Collections,  3d  Series,  Vol.  VII.,  p.  48. 

§Mass.  Records,  Vol.  V.,  pp.  147,  148. 

^Colonial  Records  of  Connecticut,  Vol.  II.,  p.  242. 


20s.  for  those  of  the  man,  with  the  addition  of  8d.  from  the 
"  midle  of  October  to  the  last  of  Aprill,"  and  the  special 
injunction  that  "  hyred  "  horses  should  not  be  deprived  of 
their  allowance.  The  number  of  routes  mentioned,  twenty- 
four,  shows  the  extent  of  the  effort  made  at  that  time. 

The  next  move  came  from  New  York,  Gov.  Dongan's  prop 
osition  of  1684,*  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made, 
adding  to  Lovelace's  scheme  of  a  post  between  New  York  and 
Boston,  the  suggestion  that  post  houses  be  established  along 
the  coast  from  Carolina  to  Nova  Scotia.  A  letter  to  him 
from  Sir  John  Werden  (August  27,  1684),  whose  title  to  the 
profits  from  the  English  post  officef  was  held  to  include  the 
British  provinces,  approves  the  project  and  suggests  that  the 
privilege  be  offered  for  three  or  five  years  by  way  of  form, 
with  a  reservation  of  not  less  than  one-tenth  of  the  profits  to 
the  duke.  Six  months  later  (February  18,  i68j),  Dongan 
writes^:  him  that  he  had  sent  permission  to  set  up  a  post 
house  but  no  power  to  do  it,  although  the  neighboring  colo 
nies  much  desired  it  and  in  some  places  had  established  foot 
and  horse  messengers.  He  adds,  "I  am  going  to  Connecti 
cut  to-morrow,  to  do  all  possible  to  settle  a  post  office  to 
Pemaquid  this  spring  and  endeavor  settlement  of  post  house 
at  Boston." 

On  his  return  from  Connecticut  (March  2,  168*),  the  gov 
ernor  ordained  in  the  New  York  council, \\  "That  for  the 
better  correspondence  between  the  colonies  of  America,  a 
post  office  be  established  ;  and  that  the  rates  for  riding  post 
be  per  mile  three  pence ;  for  every  single  letter,  not  above 
one  hundred  miles,  three  pence  ;  if  more,  proportionably." 

A  letter§  from  Sir  Edmund  Andros  to  John  Allyn, 
dated  November  23,  1687,  speaks  of  a  contemplated  post  from 
Boston  to  the  farthest  settlements  of  Connecticut,  John 
Perry  to  go  between  Hartford,  Fairfield  and  Stamford  once  a 
month  in  the  winter,  and  every  three  weeks  during  the  sum- 

*Brodhead,  Vol.  I. 

^Colonial  Documents  of  N.  Y.,  Vol.  III.,  pp.  349-350. 
^Colonial  Documents  of  N.  V.,  Vol.  III.,  p.  355. 
^Colonial  Documents  of  N.  Y.,  Vol.  III. 
^Connecticut  Records,  Vol.  III.,  pp.  392,  393,398. 


8 

mer,  as  Allyn  suggests  in  his  answer.  A  letter  from  Samuel 
Sewall*  to  Samuel  Mather,  at  Windsor,  Connecticut,  as  early 
as  March  6,  i68j?f,  mentions  John  Perry  as  bearer  and  a  post 
age  of  3^.  That  this  project  was  carried  out  is  evident  from 
the  complaint  brought  before  the  council  of  New  YorkJ  by 
John  Perry,  that  on  his  way  to  Boston  he  was  laid  hold  on  by 
warrant  from  the  usurper  Leysler,  brought  to  New  York  and 
his  letters  opened,  the  apparent  object  beipg  to  destroy  com 
merce  and  trade. 

June  nth,  1689,  the  Massachusetts  general  court ||  ap 
pointed  Richard  Wilkins,  postmaster,  to  receive  all  letters 
and  deliver  them  out  at  id.  each. 

In  169^,  a  new  era  opened  for  the  colonial  post  office.  On 
February  7th,  of  that  year,  William  and  Mary,  by  letters 
patent,  granted§  to  "Thomas  Neale,  Esq.,  his  executors, 
administrators  and  assignes,  full  power  and  authority  to  erect, 
settle  and  establish  within  the  chief  parts  of  their  majesties' 
colonies  and  plantations  in  America,  an  office  or  offices  for 
the  receiving  and  dispatching  letters  and  pacquets,  and  to 
receive,  send  and  deliver  the  same  under  such  rates  and  sums 
of  money  as  the  planters  shall  agree  to  give,  and  to  hold  and 
enjoy  the  same  for  the  terme  of  twenty-one  years." 

To  govern  and  manage  the  general  post  office,^]"  Neale 
appointed  (April  4th,  1692)  Andrew  Hamilton,  an  Edinburgh 
merchant,  who  in  1685  had  emigrated  to  New  Jersey,  and 
become  special  agent  of  the  proprietors. 

On  the  deposition  of  Andros  in  1689,  Hamilton  embarked 
for  England  to  consult  with  the  proprietors ;  on  the  voyage 
was  taken  prisoner  by  the  French,  but  soon  released,  and  in 
1692  was  made  governor  of  New  Jersey.  Hamilton's  applica- 

*  Letter  Book  of  Sam.  Sewall,  Vol.  I.,  p.  25. 

fThe  discrepancy  in  dates  leads  to  the  supposition  that  John  Perry 
served  as  bearer  before  his  actual  appointment. 

^Colonial  Documents  of  N.  Y.,  Vol.  III.,  p.  682. 

\\Mass.  Provincial  Records. 

§Mass.  Historical  Collections,  3d  series,  Vol  VII.,  pp.  50-51. 

^Mass.  Historical  Collections,  3d  series,  Vol.  VII.,  p.  51,  also  Palfrey's 
History  of  New  England. 


9 

tion  to  the  colonial  legislatures*  to  "ascertain  and  establish 
such  rates  and  terms  as  should  tend  to  quicker  maintenance 
of  mutual  correspondence  among  all  neighboring  colonies  and 
plantations  and  that  trade  and  commerce  might  be  better  pre 
served,"  met  with  a  favorable  response  from  the  colonial  gov 
ernments. 

He  first  presented  the  subject  to  Governor  Fletcher  and 
the  New  York  legislature.!  The  council,  meeting  at  Fort 
Wm.  Henry,  October  29,  1692,$  after  reading  his  proposition, 
and  also  a  letter  from  the  queen  to  the  governor,  urging  him 
to  assist  Hamilton  in  settling  the  office,  appointed  Colonels 
Courtlandt  and  Bayard  a  committee||  to  deliver  the  proposi 
tion  to  the  house  of  representatives,  and  in  November  (1692) 
the  bill  was  passed  by  both  houses  and  signed  by  the  gov 
ernor.  The  chief  provisions  of  the  bill  are  as  follows  :§  A 
general  letter  office  was  to  be  "  erected  and  established  in 
some  convenient  place  within  the  city  of  New  York,"  one 
master  of  the  general  office  to  be  appointed  from  time  to  time 
by  Hamilton,  who  with  his  servant  or  agent  should  have  the 
"receiving,  taking  up,  ordering,  dispatching,  sending  post  or 
with  speed  and  delivery  of  all  letters  and  pacquets  whatso 
ever,  which  shall  from  time  to  time  be  sent  to  and  from  all 
and  every  of  the  adjacent  collonies  and  plantations  on  the 
main  land  and  continent  of  America  or  any  other  of  their 
majesties  kingdoms  and  dominions  beyond  the  Seas."  The 
postmaster  was  to  "prepare  and  provide  horses  and  furniture 
unto  all  through  posts  and  persons  riding  in  post."  Rates 
for  single  letters  to  or  from  Europe,  the  West  Indies  or  else 
where  to  and  from  beyond  the  seas,  were  9^.,  and  the  same 
from  Boston  or  Maryland  to  New  York;  from  Virginia,  I2d., 
and  to  or  from  any  place  not  exceeding  eighty  miles  from 
New  York,  four  pence  half  penny. 

All  postmasters  were  freed  from  excise  and  all  public  ser 
vices,  with  the  exception  of  the  postmaster  of  the  city  of  New 

*Palfrey,  IV.,  p.  329. 

^Colonial  Documents  of  N.  K,  Vol.  IV,  p.  200. 

^.Journal  of  the  Legislative  Council  of  New  York,VQ\.  I,  pp.  26,  31, 32, 34. 

\Journal  of  the  Assembly,  pp.  26,  28. 

§Copied  from  the  original  MS.  at  Albany. 


10 

York,  who  was  exempt  only  from  public  services.  Any  per 
sons  or  "body  politick  or  corporate  others  than  the  P.  M. 
Gen.  aforesaid"  presuming  to  "carry,  recarry  or  deliver  let 
ters  for  hire,  other  than  as  before  excepted,  or  to  set  up  or 
imploy  any  foot-post,  horse-post  or  pacquet  boat  whatsoever" 
for  the  carrying  of  letters  or  pacquets,  or  providing  "horses 
and  furniture  for  the  horses  of  any  through  posts,  or  persons 
riding  post  with  a  guide  and  horn,"  should  forfeit  ;£ioo  cur 
rent  money,  one-half  going  to  the  governor  and  the  other  half 
to  the  postmaster-general.  All  letters  and  pacquets  brought 
by  ship  or  vessel  were  to  be  delivered  to  the  postmaster  of 
New  York  or  to  his  servants,  provided  "that  no  letters  going 
up  or  coming  down  Hudson's  river  and  going  to  or  from  Long 
Island  shall  be  carried  to  the  post-office,  everything  herein 
contained  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,"  this  clause, 
together  with  that  regarding  exemption  from  public  service 
and  excise,  being  amendments  by  the  council  to  the  bill  as 
presented  by  the  house. 

The  act  was  in  force  for  three  years,*  and  in  1695  (July  2d 
and  3d)  a  bill  was  passed  for  continuing  the  act  three  years 
longer,  "  every  article,!  rule  and  clause  therein  mentioned  to 
remain  in  full  force  and  effect." 

In  1699  (May  5)  the  act  was  again  continued,!  this  time  for 
two  years,  the  new  bill  stating  that  "the  advantage  which  the 
inhabitants  of  this  province  daily  have,  the  mutual  corre 
spondence  which  they  have  with  their  neighboring  collonies 
and  plantations  and  for  the  promoting  of  trade  and  wealth  of 
each  other,  encourage  to  the  continuance  of  the  same." 
In  1 702 1|  the  act  coming  again  before  the  Assembly  and 
Council  was  continued  for  four  and  one-half  years  from  1700; 
and  in  i7os§  (July  5,  6,  Sand  10,  and  August  14)  it  was  re- 
continued  for  three  years  from  October,  1704.^]" 

Concerning  the  passage  of  this  act  Lord  Cornbury  wrote 

*  Journal  of Legislative  Council,  I.,  pp.  79,  80. 

\Journal  of  the  Assembly. 

\Journal  of  the  Legislative  Council,  I.,  pp.  136,  137,  138,  143. 

\Journal  Legislative  Council,  I.,  186,  187,  189, 

^Journal  of  the  Assembly,  pp.  154,  226,  227,  234. 

^Journal  of  the  Assembly,  pp.   198,  200,  203. 


II 

to  the  Lords  of  Trade  that  it  was  absolutely  necessary ;  other 
wise  the  post  to  Boston  and  Philadelphia  would  be  lost.* 

At  the  meetingf  of  the  first  session  of  the  eleventh  Assem 
bly  at  Fort  Anne,  August  20,  1708,  Governor  Cornbury  in 
his  opening  speech  said  :J  "I  can't  omit  putting  you  in 
mind  that  Act  for  encouraging  a  Post  Office  is  expired ;  that 
it  is  of  so  general  Advantage  that  I  hope  you  will  revive  it." 
The  next  month  (September  3,  7,  10,  13,  and  18,  1708)  the  act 
was  considered  and  passed.  At  a  meeting  of  the  council  in 
New  York,  ||  June  21,  1709,  one  of  the  members  was  ordered 
to  go  to  the  assembly  and  "  desire  them  to  provide  for  and 
settle  a  Post  from  Albany  to  Westfield  for  holding  a  Corre 
spondence  Between  Boston  and  Albany  for  the  service  of  the 
present  Expedition  the  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay  hav 
ing  already  settled  a  Post  from  Boston  to  Westfield;"  but 
action  was  not  taken  before  1715. 

The  letters  of  this  period  throw  light  upon  the  condition  of 
the  post  with  regard  to  regularity  and  frequency. 

The  Earl  of  Bellomont  writing  from  New  York§  to  Secre- 
retary  Popple  in  London,  May  25,  1698,  says  :  "The  sure  way 
of  conveying  letters  to  me  is  by  way  of  Boston,  whence  the 
post  comes  every  week  to  this  place;"  and  Lord  Cornbury 
writes  to  the  Lords  of  Trade,^[  December  12,  1702:  "But  I 
entreat  your  Lords??5  to  consider  that  but  few  ships  goe  di 
rectly  from  this  port  to  England,  So  that  I  must  depend  upon 
the  Boston  and  Philadelphia  posts  for  conveying  my  letters 
to  such  ships  as  may  be  going  to  England ;  and  sometimes 
both  these  Conveyances  faile;"  and  again  in  a  letter  to  the 
Lords  of  Trade,  June  30,  1704:!!*"!  beg  your  Lords??5  to  con 
sider  likewise  the  difficulty  I  lye  under,  with  respect  to  oppor 
tunity's  of  writing  into  England,  which  is  thus — The  post 
that  goes  through  this  place  goes  Eastward  as  far  as  Boston, 
but  Westward  he  goes  no  further  than  Philadelphia  and  there 

*  Colonial  Documents  of ' N.  Y.,  IV.,  pp.  1167-68. 

^Journal  of  the  Council,  I.,  p.  247. 

^Journal  of  the  Assembly,  219,  223,  224. 

\Journal  of  the  Legislative  Council,  I.,  p.  285. 

^Colonial  Documents  of  N.  Y.,  IV.,  p.  317. 

^Colonial Documents  of  N.   Y.,  IV., 'p.  1017. 

||*  Colonial  Documents  of  N.  Y.,  Vol.  IV.,  p.  1113. 


12 

is  no  other  post  upon  all  this  Continent,  so  that  if  I  have  any 
letters  to  send  to  Virginia  or  to  Maryland  I  must  either  send 
an  Express  who  is  often  retarded  for  want  of  boats  to  cross 
those  great  rivers  they  must  go  over  or  else  for  want  of 
horses,  or  else  I  must  send  them  by  some  passengers  who  are 
going  thither.  The  least  I  have  known  any  Express  take  to 
go  from  hence  to  Virginia,  has  been  three  weeks,  so  that  very 
often,  before  I  can  hear  from  Coll:  Nicholson  what  time  the 
fleet  will  sail  and  send  my  packets,  the  fleet  is  sailed.  I  hope 
we  shall  find  a  way  to  remedy  that  shortly,  for  Coll:  Nicholson 
and  Coll:  Seymour  have  wrote  me  word  that  they  will  be  here 
in  September,  and  I  do  then  intend  to  propose  to  them  the 

settling  of  a  Post,  to  go  through  to  Virginia 

I  must  further  acquaint  Your  LordsP?5  that  our  letters  do  not 
come  safe  by  the  way  of  Boston,  I  have  had  several  letters  by 
that  way  which  have  been  broken  open." 

Cornbury's  scheme,  as  he  tells  us  in  another  letter  to  the 
Lords  of  Trade,  written  November  6,  1704,*  was  to  lay  a  tax 
in  each  province  by  act  of  assembly,  for  defraying  the 
charges  of  the  post,  which  might  then  have  gone  from  Boston 
to  North  Carolina,  but  his  failure  to  meet  the  men  with  whom 
he  proposed  to  discuss  it,  thwarted  the  plan. 

June  9,  1693,  Massachusetts  passed  in  councilf  an  act 
for  encouraging  the  post  office,  selecting  Boston  as  the  place 
for  the  general  letter  office,  the  master  to  be  appointed  by 
Hamilton.  Rates  to  Europe  or  to  any  place  beyond  the  seas, 
were  fixed  at  2d.,  to  different  places  within  the  colonies,  they 
varied  according  to  distance ;  from  Boston  to  Rhode  Island 
they  were  6d,  to  the  Connecticut  colonies  gd.,  to  New  York 
I2d.,  to  Eastern  Pennsylvania  or  to  Western  Jersey  15^.,  and  to 
Maryland  or  to  Virginia  2s.  A  fine  ot  40*.  in  the  current  money 
of  the  colony,  was  imposed  upon  those  who  carried  or  deliv 
ered  letters  without  authority,  one-half  the  fine  recurring  to 
their  majesties  for  the  support  of  the  government  of  the 
province,  and  one-half  to  the  postmaster-general  for  suing 
and  prosecuting  for  same.  Non-delivery  or  neglect  of  main 
taining  a  constant  post  was  fined  5^.,  one-half  going  to  their 

*  Colonial  Documents,  p.  1120. 

\Mass.  Historical  Collections,  30!  Series,  Vol.  VII. 


13 

majesties  and  one-half  to  the  party  aggrieved;  the  ferryman 
"neglecting,  refusing  or  delaying  conveyance/'  also  forfeited 
5-y.  The  postmaster  was  to  pay  the  shipmaster  one-half 
penny  for  each  letter  or  pacquet  brought,  but  all  letters  of 
public  concern  for  their  majesties'  service  were  to  be  free  of 
charge. 

That  the  first  few  years  of  the  post  in  Massachusetts  were 
not  very  lucrative,  is  shown  by  the  numerous  complaints  of 
grievances  and  petitions  of  Duncan  Campbell,  appointed  by 
Hamilton  deputy  postmaster.*  The  charges  are  thrice  the 
income,  he  complains,  and  begs  that  a  salary  be  given,  urging 
the  example  of  the  governor  and  assembly  of  New  York  in 
voting  ,£50  per  annum  for  the  support  of  the  office  in  that 
province.  This  petition  meeting  with  no  response,  he  asked 
for  freedom  from  public  rates,  taxes  and  excise  for  retailing 
strong  drink,  and  in  1694  (June  20)  obtained  a  grant  of  £2$ 
per  annum  from  the  public  treasury  of  the  province  for  two 
years.  In  1696  (May  27)  he  petitioned  for  a  renewal  of  the 
act  encouraging  a  post  office  and  also  for  a  continuation  of 
the  postmaster's  salary.  The  salary  was  voted  (July  I,  1696), 
but  no  steps  taken  toward  reviving  the  Post  Office  Act,  for 
in  1703  (May  26)  John  Campbellf  renewed  the  petition  to 
the  general  court  stating  that  the  act  had  not  been  in  force 
after  1696,  and  praying  that  since  Hamilton  was  out  of  purse 
to  the  extent  of  .£1,400  restitution  might  be  made  by  a  con 
tinuance  of  the  privilege  to  his  heirs. :£  The  same  petition  was 
presented  to  Governor  Joseph  Dudley  and  to  the  council  and 
representatives  in  General  Assembly  two  months  later  (June 
3,  1703),  but  with  no  result  as  far  as  renewal  was  concerned. 
Five  years  later  (Nov.  3,  1708),  a  committee  was  appointed 
to  inquire  what  allowance  should  be  made  for  encouraging 
the  post  office,  but  up  to  the  time  of  Queen  Anne's  Act  in 
1710  no  decision  had  been  reached. 

Campbell's  memorandum  of  1703  (July  19)  is  interesting  as 
showing  the  cost  of  maintaining  the  office  between  Philadel- 

*Mass.  Historical  Collections,  3d  Series,  Vol.  VII.,  pp.  55-60. 
fThe  successor  of  Duncan  and  famous  as  the  publisher   of  the  News 
Letter. 

\Mass.  Historical  Collections,  3d  Series,  Vol.  VII.,  pp.  60,  69. 


14 

phia  and  Piscataqua.  The  annual  outlay  was  £680,  and  the 
receipts  little  more  than  ^400,  leaving  a  deficit  of  ,£275. 

The  Campbells  had  other  grievances.*  In  a  petition  to  the 
governor,  the  council  and  the  assembly,  soon  after  the  act  of 
1693,  Duncan  begged  that  a  fine  be  imposed  for  failure  to 
deliver  letters  from  ships  to  the  postmaster.  In  1694  the 
request  was  repeated,  and  in  answer  to  this  petition  a  bill 
was  presented  ordering  all  persons  not  bringing  letters  which 
ought  to  be  delivered  into  the  post  office,  to  pay  four  times 
as  much  as  was  due  on  the  letters,  damages  to  be  made  good 
to  the  party  injured.  The  house  voted  in  the  affirmative 
May  8,  169*,  but  the  council  seems  to  have  taken  no  action 
in  the  matter.  In  1696  (May  27)  Campbell  sent  a  similar 
petition,  asking  also  that  the  rates  on  foreign  letters  might  be 
advanced  from  two  to  three  pence,  and  the  payment  to  mas 
ters  of  ships  from  an  half  penny  to  id.,  "which,"  he  adds, 
"will  be  a  great  encouragement  to  masters  not  to  deliver 
news  to  other  persons." 

In  1703,  John  Campbell  offered  a  memorial  to  the  general 
court,  complaining  "that  every  body  carrying  of  letters  to 
and  from  towns  where  post  offices  are  settled,  is  a  very  great 
hindrance  and  discouragement  to  said  office,"  letters  from 
Connecticut  colony  being  carried  to  Piscataqua,  and  after 
lying  in  the  office  there  some  weeks  and  months,  at  last  come 
to  Boston,  the  office  being  blamed  for  the  delay  without  a 
cause,  and  that  one-half  the  letters  from  Europe  and  West 
Indies  and  other  places  by  sea,  were  not  brought  to  the 
office  at  all.  The  ferrymen  also  came  in  for  their  share  of 
blame,  as  being  very  backward  in  carrying  those  employed  in 
the  post  office,  sometimes  even  demanding  money  for  ferri 
age.  The  petition  was  granted  (July  22,  1703),  and  £20  for 
the  year  past  and  £40  for  the  one  ensuing  allowed  to  Camp 
bell.  Again  in  1706  (April  12  and  October  30)  £50  was 
granted  to  him.  In  1709  (November  18)  he  wrote  to  the 
Governor  that  six  months  after  his  appointment  by  Hamilton 
in  1701,  he  had  represented  to  the  General  Assembly  that  he 
could  not  serve,  since  the  salary  was  so  small,  and  two  mem 
bers  of  the  upper  house  had  then  suggested  a  salary  of 

*Mass.  Historical  Collections,  30!  Series,  Vol.  VII.,  pp.  56-60. 


which,  reduced  by  the  vote  of  the  lower  house  to  £20,  had 
been  paid  until  within  three  years.  He  recalled  the  fact  that 
the  post  office  saved  the  country  above  ^"150  per  annum, 
which  it  would  be  obliged  to  pay  for  express,  if  there  were  no 
office.  The  public  letters,  passed  free,  had  cost  more  than 
the  postmaster's  allowance,  besides  the  charge  of  sending 
the  governor's  letters  weekly  to  Roxbury  "  in  times  of  snow 
or  rain."  The  queen,  unwilling  to  augment  the  charge  of  the 
office  to  what  it  was  in  Hamilton's  time,  was  then  at  above 
£200  sterling  charges  yearly,  to  support  it  between  New 
Hampshire  and  Pennsylvania,  and  if  the  several  offices  had 
half  salary  allowed  them,  it  would  cost  her  majesty  ;£ioo 
sterling  more.  Accordingly  he  thought  it  but  just  that  public 
letters  for  the  time  past  should  be  paid  for,  the  postmaster 
recompensed  for  sending  the  governor's  letters  to  Roxbury, 
and  some  provision  made  for  conveying  them  in  the  future. 
Otherwise,  he  would  be  obliged  to  represent  the  case  to  the 
postmaster-general  of  Great  Britain,  which  he  had  foreborne 
to  do,  hoping  that  the  general  court  would  prevent  it. 

The  council  took  no  cognizance  of  the  petition,  as  we  learn 
from  its  renewal  in  1711.* 

The  action  of  New  Hampshire  relative  to  a  post,  occurred 
at  about  the  same  time  as  that  of  Massachusetts.  John 
Usher,f  writing  to  the  New  Hampshire  council,  from  Boston, 
March  25,  1693,  said  that  the  postmaster-general  in  Bos 
ton  was  desirous  of  knowing  what  salary  would  be  allowed 
or  how  much  a  letter  for  a  post  from  Piscataqua  to  Boston, 
adding  that  it  might  be  an  advantage  to  gain  news  from  Eng 
land  and  the  West  Indies,  and  that  they  would  like  a  post 
weekly  or  once  in  two  weeks.  The  council  (March  27,  1693) 
was  of  the  opinionj  that  a  post  was  necessary,  and  that  there 
should  be  an  allowance  per  letter,  according  to  other  places 
in  like  circumstances,  proportionate  to  the  distance  from 
Boston,  " Every  one  to  pay  for  his  own  Lett1"."  A  record|| 
in  the  "Journal  of  the  Council  and  Assembly"  of  July  29, 

*Mass.  Historical  Collections,  3<i  Series,  Vol.  VII.,  p.  80. 
^N.  H.  Provincial  Papers,  Vol.  II.,  p.  100. 
\N.  H.  Provincial  Papers,  Vol.  II.,  p.  101. 
\N.  H.  Provincial  Papers,  Vol.  III.,  p.  1 1. 


i6 

1693,  says  :  "  Maj.  Vaughan  and  Mr.  Waldron  were  appointed 
to  prepare  and  drawe  up  a  Bill  for  settling  a  Post  Office  in 
this  Province,"  and  on  the  fourth  of  August  the  council  con 
curred  with  the  bill  which  had  been  passed  by  the  lower 
house. 

It  was  enacted  that*  "a  Poste  Office  and  officers  be  hence 
forth  appointed  and  settled  in  some  Convenient  place  within 
the  Towne  of  Portsmouth  for  Receiveing  &  dispatching 
awaye  according  to  direction  all  letters  and  packetts  that 
shall  be  brought  thereinto  &  no  Person  or  Persons  whatsoever 
shall  presume  to  Carry  or  recarry  any  letter  or  letters  for 
hire  but  only  such  as  belongs  to  the  Poste  Office  dureing  their 
power  and  authority  from  the  aforesaid  Thos.  Nele  Except 
such  letters  of  Merchants  and  Masters  which  shall  be  sent 
by  any  Master  of  any  Ship  Boat  or  other  vessel  of  Merchan 
dise  or  by  any  other  Person  employed  by  them  for  the  carry 
ing  of  such  letters  aforesaid  According  to  the  Respective 
Direction  And  also  Except  letters  to  be  sent  by  any  private 
friend  or  friends  in  their  way  of  Journey  or  Travill  or  by  any 
Messenger  or  Messengers  sent  on  purpose  for  or  concerning 
the  private  affaires  of  any  Person  or  Persons."  Whoever  of 
fended  against  this  Act  should  "forfeit  the  sum  of  ten  pounds 
one  halfe  to  their  Majesties  Towards  the  support  of  the 
Governor  of  this  province  The  other  halfe  to  the  Postmaster 
Genrl."  All  "  Letters  &  Packetts"  were  to  be  delivered 
by  the  importer  at  the  post  house  or  to  the  post  officer,  receiv 
ing  in  return  a  half-penny  for  each,  the  person  to  whom  di 
rected  paying  two  pence  for  each  letter,  and  for  a  "  Packett 
no  lesse  than  3  letters  besides  Bills  Loading  Invoyces  Ga 
zette  etc  four  pence  And  for  each  letter  brought  from 
Boston  in  to  this  Province  not  exceeding  five  pence  and 
Doble  fora  Packett  and  so  proportionately  for  Letters  on  this 
sid  Boston  shall  be  paid  with  the  customary  allowance  in  the 
Government  from  whense  they  come."  Neglect  of  duty  in 
keeping  constant  post  or  in  delivering  letters  was  punishable 
by  a  fine  of  .£5,  "The  one  halfe  to  their  Majesties  the  other 
halfe  to  the  party  agreved."  All  letters  concerning  their 
majesties'  service  were  to  be  received  and  dispatched  with  all 

*Copied  from  the  original,  also  in  Hist.  Magazine,  Vol.  III.,  p.  351. 


17 

possible  speed  free  from  charge.  It  was  "  further  enacted  and 
ordained  that  the  officer  of  the  Post  House  haveing  Licence 
granted  to  Retaile  Beer  Sider  &  Ale  within  Doors  according 
to  Law  shall  have  his  Excise  free  and  no  officer  of  the  Excise 
shall  demand  anything  of  him  for  the  same  and  his  Person  to 
be  excused  from  watching  and  warding."  The  foregoing 
Act  was  to  continue  in  force  for  three  years  from  the  publi 
cation,  but  in  1694  (May  I2th),  an  additional  act  for  the 
encouragement  of  the  post  office  was  passed,*  since  "not 
withstanding  a  late  act  for  the  Setling  a  Poste  Office  within 
this  Province  Sundrie  Letters  are  brought  by  ships  and  other 
vessell  a  longe  shore  to  the  Prejudice  of  those  who  are  at  the 
charge  of  keeping  a  poste  goeing  once  a  week  by  land."  It  was 
"Enacted  by  the  Liet.  Governor  Counsill  &  Representatives 
convened  in  Genl.  Assembly"  that  thereafter  all  masters  of 
sloops  or  other  vessels  arriving  within  the  Province  should 
deliver  all  letters  brought  in  by  them,  except  such  as  con 
cerned  the  loading  of  their  vessels,  to  the  collector  or  other 
post  officer  to  be  carried  "with  all  convenient  speed"  to  the 
post  house. 

The  next  year  (May  21,  1695),  a  petition  from  Campbell  for 
encouraging  the  post  office,  was  answered  by  a  bill  settling 
a  salary  of  £12  for  the  ensuing  year.f  In  1698$  (April  7th) 
another  petition  from  Campbell  for  continuing  the  support 
of  the  post  office  was  read  in  the  council  and  sent  to  the 
assembly,  but  returned  without  their  allowing  anything.  July 
2d,  1703,  a  committee  of  both  houses  was  appointed  to  con 
sider  the  petition  of  John  Campbell,  Duncan's  successor,  and 
in  February  (8th),  170!,  21  £  4^  was  voted. 

A  year  later ||  (May  30,  1705)  the  council  and  General  As 
sembly  voted  to  pay  £6  out  of  the  next  provincial  rate,  to 
Campbell  for  his  "extraordinary  Service  in  forwarding  his 
Excellency's  and  Government  letters  for  her  Majesty's  ser 
vice  relating  to  this  province;"  again  in  1707  (April  8th)  he 

*N.  H.  Provincial  Papers,  Vol.  III.,  p.  1 8. 

fA7:  H.  Provincial  Papers,  Vol.  III.,  p.  30. 

%N.  H.  Provincial  Papers,  Vol.  III.,  pp.  61,  248,  257,  279. 

||  A".  H.  Provincial  Papers,  Vol.  III.,  p.  304. 


i8 

was  granted*  £6  out  of  the  treasury,  and  in  1708  (May  6th) 
another  £6  for  " diligent  care  of  expresses  and  letters." 

The  first  entry  in  the  Colonial  Records  of  Rhode  Islandf 
regarding  a  post  is  in  I/74- 

Connecticut's  earliest  efforts  toward  the  establishment  of  a 
post  have  already  been  mentioned  in  connection  with  New 
York  and  Massachusetts.  On  May  loth,  1694,  the  court  of 
election  at  Hartford  passed  the  following  Act  for  the  encour 
agement  of  a  post  office. J 

"Whereas  their  most  excelent  Maties  King  Wm  and  Queen 
Mary  by  their  letters  pattents  have  granted  a  Post  Qffice  to 
be  set  up  in  these  partes  of  N.  E.  for  the  receiving  and  diss- 
patching  of  letters  and  pacquetts  from  one  place  to  another 
for  their  Maties  speciall  service  and  the  benefit  of  theire  Maties 
good  Subjects  in  these  parts.  This  court  being  willing  to 
encourage  so  good  a  worke,  doe  order  and  enact  that  all  such 
persons  as  shall  be  imployed  by  the  Post  Master  Gen.  in  the 
severall  stages  within  this  Colony  of  Connecticut  shall  and 
may  pass  and  repasse  all  and  every  ferry  within  this  Colony, 
from  the  day  of  the  date  hereof  for  and  during  this  courts 
pleasure,  without  payeing  any  rate  or  sume  of  money  either 
for  his  own  or  horses  passage." 

May,  i698,||  in  response  to  a  complaint  that  posts  and  other 
travellers  met  with  great  difficulty  in  journeying  through 
the  colony,  especially  in  the  township  of  Stonington,  the 
court  ordered  the  selectmen  to  lay  out  convenient  high 
ways,  kept  cleared  and  open,  unless  they  passed  through 
ancient  common  fields,  or  the  general  or  county  court  or 
dered  otherwise,  and  "made  good  with  sufficient  causeis  and 
bridges  as  need  shall  require,"  failure  to  observe  these  in 
structions  to  be  punished  by  a  fine  of  ;£io  into  the  public 
treasury,  and  for  a  continuance  of  the  offence  by  an  annual 
fine  of  £10  to  be  levied  upon  the  selectment  or  inhabitants. 

In  May,  I7O4,§  the  general  court  decreed  that  since  the 

*N.  H.  Provincial  Papers,  Vol.  III.,  p.  343. 

\  Colonial  Records  of  Rhode  Island. 

\  Colonial  Records  of  Connecticut,  Vol.  IV.,  p.  123. 

||  Colonial  Records,  Vol.  IV.,  p.  246-47. 

§  Colonial  Records,  Vol.  IV.,  p.  468. 


19 

post  was  often  impeded,  "in  cases  extraordinarie  the  au- 
thoritie  may  grant  a  bill  to  the  Constables  for  the  defraying 
of  such  charges  as  are  really  necessary." 

Watson,*  in  his  Annals  of  Philadelphia,  bases  on  MSS. 
in  the  possession  of  the  Pemberton  family,  his  statement  that 
as  early  as  July,  1683,  a  weekly  post  was  established  by  order 
of  William  Penn  and  a  grant  given  to  a  certain  Henry  Waldy 
of  Tekonay  to  hold  one,  and  "supply  passengers  with  horses 
from  Philadelphia  to  New  Castle  or  the  Falls  of  the  Dela 
ware  ;  the  rates  from  the  Falls  to  Philadelphia  ^d,  to  Chester 
$d,  to  New  Castle  *jd,  to  Maryland  9^,  and  from  Philadelphia 
to  Chester  2d,  to  New  Castle  4^,  to  Maryland  6d.  Winsor, 
in  the  Narrative  and  Critical  History,  adds  that  the  notices  of 
the  departure  of  the  post  were  put  on  the  meeting-house 
doors  and  in  other  public  places. 

The  same  year  (1683)!  a  ^aw  was  passed  at  Philadelphia 
directing  the  way  in  which  official  letters  should  be  dis 
patched,  in  order  that  the  governor  might  obtain  "true  and 
speedy  information  regarding  public  affairs,  as  well  from 
Europe  as  the  neighboring  colonies  and  remote  parts  of  this 
province  and  territories  thereof."  "Be  it  Enacted  by 
the  authority  aforesaid,  That  every  Justice  of  the  Peace, 
Sheriff  or  Constable  within  the  respective  counties  of  this 
province  and  territories  thereof,  to  whose  hands  or  knowledge 
any  Letter  or  Letters  shall  come,  directed  to  or  from  the 
governor,  shall  dispatch  them,  within  3  hours  at  the  farthest, 
after  the  receipt  or  knowledge  thereof,  to  the  next  Sheriff  or 
Constable,  and  so  forwards,  as  the  Letter  directs,  upon  the 
penalty  of  2os.  for  every  hour's  delay.  And  in  such  cases, 
all  Justices  of  the  Peace,  Sheriffs  or  Constables  are  hereby 
empowered  to  press  either  man  or  horse  for  that  service,  al 
lowing  for  a  horse  or  man,  2  pence  by  the  mile,  to  be  paid  out 
of  the  public  stock." 

September  5th,  1700,  Penn  writes  to  Logan  that  he  sends  a 
package  for  Governor  Blackestonf  to  be  forwarded  to  the 

*Watson,  Vol.  II.,  p.  391.  Winsor,  Narrative  and  Critical  History,  Vol. 
III.,  p.  491.     Historical  Magazine,  Vol.  III.,  p.  221. 
^Historical  Magazine,  Vol.  III.,  p.  223. 
\Penn  and  Logan  Correspondence. 


20 

sheriff  of  New  Castle,  showing  that  the  custom  was  in  vogue 
seventeen  years  after  its  origin. 

The  Duke  of  Yorke  s  Laws*  under  the  laws  made  and 
passed  by  Benjamin  Fletcher,  governor  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
the  council  and  representatives,  May  I5th  and  June  ist,  1693, 
records  one  for  the  erection  of  a  post  office  in  Philadelphia 
by  Andrew  Hamilton,  "from  whence  all  letters  &  packets 
may  be  with  all  expedition  sent  into  any  of  the  parts  of  New 
England  and  other  adjacent  colonies  in  these  parts  of 
America,  at  which  said  office  all  returns  and  answers  may  be 
received."  Andrew  Hamilton,  or  some  other  postmaster- 
general  appointed  by  the  king,  was  to  demand  and  receive 
postage  according  to  the  following  rates:  single  foreign  let 
ters  2d.,  and  each  packet  4</.;  letters  sent  from  Philadelphia 
to  New  York  ^d.  half  penny,  to  Connecticut  9^.,  to  Rhode 
Island  \2d.,  to  Boston  15^.,  to  points  beyond  Boston  igd.,  to 
Maryland  and  Virginia  9^,  and  to  every  place  within  eighty 
miles  of  Philadelphia  ^d.  half  penny.  If  foreign  letters  were 
left  forty-eight  hours  uncalled  for,  they  were  to  be  delivered 
and  one  penny  more  for  each  demanded  from  receiver.  Public 
letters  were  to  go  post  free ;  ferriage  was  to  be  free  for  all, 
and  constant  posts  were  to  be  maintained  from  Philadelphia 
to  New  York  and  New  Castle. 

At  an  assembly  held  at  Philadelphia,!  May  2Oth,  1697, 
Joseph  Growden,  "  chairman  of  the  grand  comittee  appointed 
to  consider  of  Andrew  Hamilton's  memorial  for  encourage 
ment  to  support  the  post,"  reported  "that  it  was  the  vote  of 
the  comittee  that  a  bill  be  prepared  for  encouragement  to 
support  the  post  both  by  the  publick  and  upon  private 
letters." 

Since  the  charge  of  the  office  had  much  exceeded  the  post 
age,  J  the  assembly,  "being  sensible  of  the  benefit  of  the  said 
office  to  trade  and  commerce,  and  to  the  province  and  terri 
tories  in  general  if  it  be  continued,  and  of  the  great  loss  that 
will  happen  to  both  if  it  should  happen  to  fall  for  want  of  en 
couragement,"  it  was  voted  that  the  rates  be  raised  on  foreign 

*Duke  of  Yorkers  Laws,  p.  224. 

^Pennsylvania  Colonial  Records,  Vol.  I.,  p.  524. 

\Duke  of  Yorke's  Laws,  p.  262. 


21 

letters  received  from  2d.  to  4^.,  on  those  sent  from  Philadel 
phia  to  New  York  from  ^d.  to  8d.,  and  other  rates  propor 
tionately.  Hamilton  was  to  receive  £20  in  the  silver  money  of 
the  province  from  the  public  treasury  annually  for  three  years, 
the  period  during  which  the  law  was  to  be  in  force. 

In  1700,  a  bill  was  passed  to  be  in  effect  seven  years, 
which  says  :* 

"  Considering  that  maintenance  of  speedy  correspondence 
is  good  for  trade  and  is  best  carried  on  by  public  post,  Be  it 
enacted,  that  there  be  a  General  Letter  Office  erected 
and  established  in  Philadelphia  to  send  letters  to  colonies 
planted  in  America  or  in  any  of  the  King's  Kingdoms  in 
foreign  lands."  Rates  were  regulated  by  bulk,  as  well  as  by 
distance,  a  sheet  of  paper  being  accounted  as  a  single  letter 
and  a  packet  equal  to  three  letters,  at  the  least ;  the  post  of  a 
single  letter  from  Philadelphia  to  Boston  or  Rhode  Island  was 
i&/.,  to  Piscataqua  and  other  parts  east  of  Boston  2s.,  to 
New  York  8<^.,  to  Maryland  and  Virginia  iSd.  if  by  post,  if 
by  private  person  to  the  office  4^.,  all  letters  for  the  prop 
rietary  or  for  the  governor  to  be  free.  The  fine  for  a  neglect 
ful  ferryman  was  £$,  for  any  one  who  should  presume  to 
carry  letters  for  hire  or  set  up  or  employ  any  post,  £4.0. 

"Whereas,  letters  to  merchants  were  often  delayed  and 
given  to  untrustworthy  persons  who  may  open  them  and  get 
trade  secrets,"  shipmasters  were  ordered  to  give  letters  only 
to  the  postmaster  or  to  his  assistants. 

In  1701  (June  23d),  in  response  to  a  petition  from  Patrick 
Robinson  in  behalf  of  Col.  Andrew  Hamilton,  "  Postmaster 
General  in  America  and  Govr  of  the  Jerseys,"  praying  for 
the  payment  from  the  "publick  stock"  of  the  £20  per  year 
for  three  years,  which  had  been  allowed  him  by  the  act  of 
1697,  the  treasurer  was  ordered  to  pay  the  sum  as  soon  as 
there  was  sufficient  money  in  his  hands. 

April  nth,  1706,1  a  grant  was  given  a  certain  Hugh  Huddy 
to  establish  stages  from  Burlington  to  Perth  Amboy,  and 
April  4th,  1709,  an  act  for  the  encouragement  of  the  post 
office  was  passed  by  the  New  Jersey  assembly.  The  masters 
of  the  offices  were  to  be  appointed  from  time  to  time  by  the 

*Martin^s  Bench  and  Bar  of  Philadelphia,  pp.  126-130. 
^Pennsylvania  Magazine,  Vol.  IX.,  p.  444. 


22 

postmaster-general.  No  other  persons  were  to  receive,  dis 
patch  or  deliver  letters  or  packets  except  such  as  were  sent 
by  masters  or  merchants  in  ships  of  which,  or  of  the  cargo  of 
which,  they  were  entirely  or  in  part  owners,  or  "  except  letters 
to  be  sent  by  any  private  Friend  or  Friends  in  their  ways  of 
journey  or  Travel,  or  by  any  Messenger  or  Messengers  sent  of 
purpose  for  or  concerning  the  private  affairs  of  any  person  or 
persons."*  The  rates  were  fixed  according  to  bulk  as  well  as 
distance,  the  post  of  every  single  letter  from  Europe,  the 
West  Indies  and  other  parts  beyond  the  seas,  was  four  pence 
half-penny,  all  letters  to  be  accounted  single  if  they  did  not 
exceed  one  sheet  of  paper.  The  postage  on  each  "pacquet" 
of  letters  from  these  places  was  gd.  a  "  pacquet "  being  ac 
counted  three  sheets,  at  the  least.  The  post  of  every  letter 
from  Boston  not  exceeding  one  sheet  of  paper,  was  I.T.  3^., 
the  post  of  every  letter  not  exceeding  two  sheets,  2s.  6d.,  and 
the  post  of  every  "pacquet  of  letters  or  other  things  whatso 
ever,  2s.  6d.  for  every  ounce,  Troy  weight,  and  for  the  post 
of  every  letter  not  exceeding  one  sheet  of  paper,  for  any 
place  not  exceeding  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  gd.,  and  so 
in  proportion  to  the  bulk."  Carrying  letters  for  hire,  or 
setting  up  or  employing  any  foot,  post,  horse  or  paquet  boat 
for  carrying  letters  or  paquets  or  providing  and  maintaining 
horses  or  furniture  for  the  horsing  of  any  through  post,  was 
punishable  by  a  fine  of  ,£100  current  money  for  every  several 
offence,  one-third  to  go  to  the  governor,  one-third  to  the  use 
of  the  colony  and  the  remaining  third  to  the  informer. 
Any  ferryman  neglecting,  delaying  or  refusing  to  convey 
posts  forfeited  £$. 

As  late  as  1791  there  were  only  six  post  offices  in  the 
colony,  and  none  south  of  Trenton. f 

The  Maryland  archives  contain  no  reference  to  a  post  be 
fore  1710. 

In  March,  i66j,  the  following  actj  was  passed  by  the  Vir 
ginia  assembly:  "Whereas  the  remotenesse  of  diverse  places 
in  the  country  from  James  Citty  and  the  necessity  of  com- 

*Copied  from  the  original. 
^Pennsylvania  Magazine,  Vol.  IX.,  p.  444. 
J Herring's  Statutes  at  Large,  Vol.  II.,  p.  109. 


23 

municating  diverse  businesses  to  the  utmost  lymitts  of  itt, 
would  (if  messengers  were  purposely  prest)  put  the  country 
to  an  annuall  greate  expense  for  prevention  whereof,  Be  it 
enacted  that  all  letters  superscribed  for  the  service  of  his 
Majesty  or  publique  shall  be  imediately  conveyed  from  plan 
tation  to  plantation  to  the  place  and  person  they  are  directed 
to  under  the  penalty  of  350  pounds  of  tobacco  to  each  de 
faulter." 

March  2d,  1692,*  an  act  was  passed  for  encouraging  the 
erection  of  a  post  office  in  each  county  of  the  colony,  Thomas 
Neale  and  his  deputies  to  settle  and  establish  the  post  at  their 
own  cost.  Rates  were  to  vary  according  to  bulk  and  distance, 
state  letters  and  public  orders  of  the  governor  and  council 
were  to  be  sent  free,  and  merchants  were  not  to  be  pro 
hibited  from  sending  letters  by  the  masters  of  vessels  or 
others.  The  act  was  to  be  in  force  during  the  term  granted 
by  their  majesties'  letters  patent  to  Thomas  Neale. 

Cooper's  Statutes  at  Large  of  South  Carolina^  records  an 
enactment  regarding  the  post,  of  September  loth,  1702,  by 
John  Grenville,  Esq.,  Pallatine,  and  the  other  lords  and  pro 
prietors  of  the  province  of  Carolina  with  the  consent  of  the 
other  members  of  the  General  Assembly.  A  certain  Ed. 
Bourne  was  appointed  postmaster  and  ordered  to  fix  an  exact 
list  of  letters  received  and  dispatched  in  some  public  place  in 
his  house  for  thirty  clays,  for  each  packet  or  letter  receiving 
one-half  royal,  and  for  any  neglect  of  duty  forfeiting  40^. 
July  1 2th,  1707,  an  actj  to  erect  a  general  post  office  was 
ratified  and  continued  for  two  years. 

The  first  act  regarding  a  post  office  in  North  Carolina  was 
in  I787.|| 

The  correspondence  of  the  period  shows  when  the  post  be 
came  an  established  fact.  About  1700,  letters  begin  not  with 
the  names  of  the  bearers,  but  with  expressions  such  as  the 
following:  " The  post  is  just  blowing  his  horn  and  cannot 

*Hening's  Statutes  at  Large,  Vol.  III.,  pp.  112,  115. 
fCooper's  Statutes  at  Large,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  188-89. 
%  Cooper's  Statutes  at  Large,  Vol.  II,  p.  308. 
||Iredell,  Laws  of  North  Carolina. 


24 

help  it  that  I  write  no  more  particularly."*  "  I  had  not  time 
to  say  more  by  the  last  post  than  I  did."  "  Sent  by  post  last 
week."  "Having  no  letter  from  you  by  the  post."  Individ 
ual  bearers  were  still  made  use  of,  often  probably  for  the 
reason  which  Logan  gives  in  a  letter  to  Penn,  written  Feb 
ruary,  1708.1  "  I  send  this  chiefly  to  accompany  the  enclosed 

to  Wm.  Aubrey,  I  therefore  request  thee  to  peruse  it 

and  to  let  it  be  sealed  up,  directed  in  some  hand  like  mine, 
as  J.  Jeffreys,  and  delivered.  I  send  it  thus  without  cover  to 
save  postage,  which  is  now  very  high  to  Boston."  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  Lovelace's  description  of  the  first  post  as  "  active, 
stout  and  indefatigable,"  would  apply  equally  to  his  suc- 
essors,  for  they  too  went  laden  with  "  letters,  portable  goods 
and  divers  bags."  Wait  Winthrop  writes  from  Boston  to 
Fitz-John  Winthrop,  "  Govr  of  his  Majts  Collonye  of  Conecti- 
cott  in  New  London,"  "  I  have  had  yours  by  the  post  with 
little  bundle ;"  "  If  Sudance  can  bundle  up  John's  freise  Jacket 
&  Mingoe's  cloth  Jacket  in  an  old  towell  pray  let  the  post 

bring  them."  "Post  will  bring  you  a  pair  of  Simpsons 

could  not  goe  to  direct  the  man  about  the  glass,  or  els  it 
had  gone  by  this  Post  "  and  "  If  Anthony  has  lamed  the 
horses  he  may  dispatch  them  quite  that  they  may  be  no  fur 
ther  trouble ;  but  if  their  legs  are  fit  to  bring  them,  I  desire 
they  may  be  sent  by  the  post,  unless  some  safer  opportu 
nity  present  in  two  or  three  days."J 

The  early  history  of  the  colonial  post  office  ends  in  1710. 
With  Queen  Anne's  Act  of  that  year  a  new  era  began,  intro 
ducing  a  system  of  greater  uniformity,  of  greater  detail  and 
of  closer  connection  with  the  home  government. 

*Mass.  Historical  Collections,  6th  Series,  Vol.  V.,  pp.  64,  65,  66,  70. 

\Penn  and  Logan  Correspondence,  Vol.  II.,  p.  257. 

\Mass.  Historical  Collections,   6th  Series,  Vol.  V.,  pp.  52,  101,  116,  140. 


MARY  E.  WOOLLEY. 


PATENT  TO  THOMAS  NEALE. 

[The  preceding  pages  were  reprinted  from  the  Publications  of  the 
Rhode  Island  Historical  Society,  January,  1894.  Subsequently  there  was 
received  from  the  Public  Record  Office  in  London,  by  the  kindness  of 
Hubert  Hall,  Esq.,  F.  S.  A.,  a  copy  of  the  patent  to  Thomas  Neale,  men 
tioned  on  page  8,  preceding.  The  document  is  of  fundamental  impor 
tance  to  the  history  of  the  colonial  post  office.  It  instituted,  for  the  first 
time,  a  royal  intercolonial  post,  an  American  post  office ;  and  the  Ameri 
can  post  office  was  the  first  of  American  executive  departments,  the  first 
continental  institution,  and  contributed,  in  its  way,  toward  the  unification 
of  America.  The  patent  is  therefore  given  in  full  below.  It  is  believed 
that  it  has  never  before  been  printed.  It  is  designated,  "  Patent  Roll 
(Chancery)  4  William  and  Mary,  Part  i,  No.  3."  Its  date  proves  to  be 
February  17,  169^,  not  February  7. 

The  patent  to  Thomas  Neale  was  a  piece  of  court  favor.  A  few  facts 
respecting  the  man  himself  may  be  of  interest.  Thomas  Neale  was  an 
amusing  person.  All  that  the  editor  has  been  able  to  discover  respecting 
him  shows,  with  the  utmost  consistency,  the  confirmed  office-holder,  the 
determined  and  adventurous  speculator,  quick  to  seize  any  opportunity 
for  persona]  profit.  In  the  first  place,  as  to  his  marriage.  Pepys,  January 
i,  i66|,  mentions  that  there  was  much  talk  at  the  coffee-house  about  a 
very  rich  widow,  said  to  be  worth  ^80,000,  and  young  and  handsome.  Her 
husband,  Sir  Nicholas  Gold,  a  merchant,  had  not  been  dead  a  week  yet, 
and  already  great  courtiers  were  looking  after  her.  She  was  the  daughter 
of  Sir  John  Garrard  (Burke,  Extinct  and  Dormant  Baronetage,  214).  June 
20,  1664,  Pepys  tells  a  remarkable  story  of  the  bold  manner  in  which 
Neale  had  won  this  prize,  Lady  Gold  and  he  having  been  married  in  spite 
of  her  brother's  opposition.  By  1684  Neale  had  become  installed  in  the 
palace,  in  the  doubtless  lucrative  office  of  groom  porter  (London  Gazette, 
July  28,  1684;  Malcolm,  "Anecdotes  of  London  down  to  1700,"  i.  378,  iii. 
50).  The  duties  of  this  office  are  described  by  Pepys  under  date  of  Janu 
ary  i,  166^.  "They  were,"  says  Macaulay  (iv.  391),  "to  call  the  odds 
when  the  Court  played  at  hazard,  to  provide  cards  and  dice,  and  to  decide 
any  dispute  which  might  arise  on  the  bowling-green  or  at  the  gaming 
table."  Neale  organized  lotteries  after  the  Venetian  manner,  and  in  1694 
built  extensively,  for  speculative  purposes,  about  the  Seven  Dials  (Eve 
lyn's  Diary,  Nov.  14,  1693  ;  Oct.  5,  Nov.  22,  1694).  In  that  same  year  he 
was  employed  by  the  government  to  conduct  the  lottery  loan  for  the 
State,  though  some,  says  Macaulay,  thought  the  treasury  lowered  itself 
thereby.  But,  after  all,  he  was  more  of  a  personage  than  would,  perhaps, 
be  gathered  from  Macaulay's  description.  If  he  was  not  identical  with 


26 

the  Thomas  Neale  who  represented  Petersfield  in  the  Parliament  of 
1661-78  (Parl.  Hist.,  iv.  198),  he  was  certainly  member  for  Ludgershall  in 
all  the  subsequent  parliaments  of  Charles  II.,  in  that  of  James  II.,  and  in 
the  second  and  third  parliaments  of  King  William  (5  W.  &  M.,  c.  7,  sec. 
69;  letter  of  F.  Bonnet  to  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  in  Ranke,  vi.  238; 
Parl.  Hist.,  iv.  1082,  1157,  1301,  1346,  v.  544,961;  Grey's  Debates,  viii. 
380).  Moreover,  a  list  in  Harl.  Misc.  viii.  512,  prepared  in  July,  1698, 
identifies  him  with  Thomas  Neale,  the  master  of  the  mint,  Sir  Isaac  New 
ton's  predecessor  in  that  office.  No  doubt  he  was  the  author  of  a  pamph 
let  on  "  Mending  the  Coin,"  London  :  1695,  which  Allibone  mentions.  In 
fact,  Neale  was  master  of  the  mint  from  1679  to  1699  (Ruding,  Annals  of 
the  Coinage,  i.  29,  35,  ii.  30,  33,  46,  466).  As  the  office  was  for  life,  and 
Newton  succeeded  upon  a  vacancy  (Brewster's  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  ii.  193), 
it  is  probable  that  Neale  died  in  1699.  He  should  have  died  rich,  for  a 
report  in  the  Commons'  Journals  in  1697  (xi.  447,  453)  gives  us  the  charac 
teristic  touch  that  by  his  percentages  on  coinage  he  made  apparently  above 
;£  14,000  a  year,  while  a  deputy,  paid  ^400,  did  almost  all  the  work  in  his 
absence.  Yet  it  seems  that  he  died  insolvent,  and  failed  to  carry  out  a 
large  building  contract  into  which  he  had  entered  with  Sir  Walter  Clarges 
(Malcolm,  Londin.  Rediv.,  iv.  328).  Malcolm  also  says  (Anecdotes  of 
London  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  i.  36)  that  he  left  money  for  a  charity 
school.  The  "Gentleman's  Magazine"  (ii.  631),  mentions,  under  date  of 
Feb.  17,  1732,  the  death  of  the  widow  of  Thomas  Neale,  Esq ,  ast.  96,  in 
Old  Palace  Yard. 

By  way  of  corrigendum  to  Miss  Woolley's  paper,  it  should  be  men 
tioned,  out  of  Mr.  F.  H.  Norton's  notes  to  his  edition  of  the  Journal  of 
Hugh  Finlay,  that  the  Virginian  act  of  i66|,  cited  on  p.  22,  above,  was 
preceded  by  an  act  of  similar  tenor  in  1657. — EDITOR.] 


D    con      "1  WILLIAM  AND  MARY  by  the  Grace  of  God  &c 
Neale  Af     I  To   all   to   whome  these  presents  shall  come 
Grant         f  GREETING  whereas  our  Trusty  and  welbeloved 
3  J   servant   Thomas   Neale    Esquire   hath    lately 

humbly  represented  unto  us  that  there  never  yet  hath  bin 
any  post  established  for  the  conveying  of  Letters  within  or 
between  Virginia  Maryland  Delaware  New  Yorke  New  Eng 
land  East  and  West  Jersey  Pensilvania  and  Northward  as  far 
as  our  Dominions  reach  in  America  And  that  the  want 
thereof  hath  bin  a  great  hindrance  to  the  Trade  of  those 
parts  And  he  the  said  Thomas  Neale  haveing  humbly  desired 
us  to  grant  to  him  Letters  Patents  for  the  settling  of  such 
a  post  at  his  owne  charge  and  Wee  being  fully  satisfied  that 
the  same  may  be  of  service  to  Trade  and  correspondence  and 
alsoe  willing  to  encourage  such  an  undertakeing  know  yee 
therefore  that  wee  of  our  especiall  grace  certaine  knowledge 
and  meer  mocon  and  with  and  under  the  condicons  and  agree 
ments  herein  after  mentioned  on  the  part  and  behalfe  of  the 
said  Thomas  Neale  his  executors  and  assignes  to  be  per 
formed  have  given  and  granted  and  by  these  presents  for  us 
our  heires  and  successors  doe  give  and  grant  unto  the  said 
Thomas  Neale  his  executors  administrators  and  assignes  full 
power  and  authority  to  erect  settle  and  establish  and  from 
time  to  time  dureing  the  Terme  herein  after  mentioned  shall 
and  may  continue  and  enjoy  within  every  or  any  the  chief e 
Ports  of  the  severall  Iselands  Plantacons  or  Colonies  belong 
ing  or  to  belong  unto  us  our  heires  or  successors  in  America 
an  Office  or  Offices  for  the  receiving  and  dispatching  away  of 
letters  and  packquetts  with  full  power  and  authority  and  free 
liberty  leave  and  lycence  to  and  for  him  the  said  Thomas 
Neale  his  executors  administrators  and  assignes  and  to  and 
for  such  person  or  persons  as  he  or  they  shall  from  time  to 
time  in  this  behalfe  nominate  to  receive  at  the  respective 
Offices  aforesaid  of  and  from  any  Masters  of  Ships  Passen- 


28 

gers  or  others  any  letters  or  Pacquetts  whatsoever  which 
shall  be  brought  into  the  said  Colonyes  and  Iselands  or  any 
of  them  from  England  or  from  any  other  parts  whatsoever  or 
which  shall  be  sent  from  any  parts  or  places  of  such  respec 
tive  Colony  or  Iseland  to  any  other  parts  or  places  of  the 
same  and  to  dispatch  send  away  carry  and  deliver  the  same 
to  the  respective  persons  and  places  to  whome  or  which  they 
shall  be  directed  or  sent  within  the  said  Colonys  and  Iselands 
or  any  of  them  and  to  take  or  receive  to  the  onely  use  and 
behoofe  of  him  the  said  Thomas  Neale  his  executors  adminis 
trators  and  assignes  for  the  postage  or  conveyance  of  all  such 
letters  and  Packquetts  as  shall  be  soe  dispatcht  sent  away 
carried  and  delivered  such  rates  and  sumes  of  money  as  shall 
be  proportionable  to  the  rates  for  the  post  or  carriage  of  let 
ters  sett  downe  and  ascertained  in  and  by  an  Act  of  Parlia 
ment  made  in  the  Twelfth  yeare  of  the  reigne  of  our  late  Royall 
Uncle  King  Charles  the  Second  of  Blessed  memory  entituled 
(an  act  for  erecting  and  establishing  a  Post  Office)  or  such 
other  rates  or  sumes  of  money  as  the  Planters  and  others  will 
freely  agree  to  give  for  their  letters  or  Pacquetts  upon  the 
first  settlement  of  such  Office  or  Offices  And  further  Wee  have 
given  and  granted  and  by  these  presents  for  us  our  heires  and 
successors  doe  give  and  grant  unto  the  said  Thomas  Neale 
his  executors  administrators  and  assignes  and  to  such  person 
and  persons  as  he  or  they  shall  from  time  to  time  nominate  as 
aforesaid  full  power  and  authority  and  free  liberty  leave  and 
lycence  at  the  said  Office  or  offices  so  to  be  settled  as  aforesaid 
to  collect  and  receive  such  letters  or  pacquetts  as  the  Planters 
or  any  others  will  send  or  bring  to  the  same  and  to  dispatch 
such  of  them  away  for  England  as  shall  be  directed  thither  by 
the  first  ship  that  from  time  to  time  shall  be  bound  for  any 
Port  Towne  of  England  to  be  there  delivered  to  the  Deputy 
or  Deputies  of  our  Postmaster  or  Postmasters  Generall  for 
the  time  being  by  him  or  them  appointed  or  to  be  appointed 
for  the  said  Port  Towne  To  the  end  such  Deputy  or  Deputys 
may  from  time  to  time  send  the  same  away  to  the  Generall 
Post  Office  in  England  to  be  delivered  according  to  the  sev- 
erall  and  respective  direccons  of  the  same  as  by  the  said  Act 
of  Parliament  is  prescribed  and  to  dispatch  away  such  of  the 


29 

said  letters  or  Pacquetts  as  shall  be  directed  or  are  to  be  car 
ried  from  any  of  the  said  Islands  Colonys  or  Plantacons  from 
time  to  time  To  have  hold  use  exercise  and  enjoy  the  said 
Office  and  Offices  with  the  powers  authorities  priviledges 
leave  and  lycence  herein  before  mentioned  and  intended  to  be 
hereby  granted  and  to  take  perceive  and  receive  the  rates 
and  sumes  aforesaid  unto  him  the  said  Thomas  Neale  his  exec 
utors  administrators  and  assignes  To  the  onely  use  and 
behoofe  of  him  the  said  Thomas  Neale  his  executors  admin 
istrators  and  assignes  from  the  date  of  these  our  Letters 
Patents  for  and  dureing  the  Terme  of  twenty  one  yeares  from 
thence  next  ensueing  and  fully  to  be  compleate  and  ended  with 
out  any  account  or  other  matter  or  thing  to  be  therefore 
rendered  or  paid  to  us  our  heires  or  successors  other  then  the 
rent  covenants  and  agreements  herein  after  mentioned  ren- 
dring  to  us  our  heires  and  successors  dureing  the  said  Terme 
the  yearly  rent  of  six  shillings  and  eight  pence  to  be  paid  into 
our  Exchequer  in  England  at  the  Feast  of  St.  Michaell  the 
Archangell  yearly  And  Wee  doe  hereby  for  us  our  heirs  and 
successors  authorize  and  comand  the  Postmaster  and  Post 
masters  Generall  now  and  for  the  time  being  of  us  our  heires 
and  successors  from  time  to  time  to  issue  such  Deputacons 
as  may  better  enable  the  said  Thorn  Thomas  Neale  his  exec 
utors  administrators  and  assignes  and  such  person  or  persons 
as  he  or  they  shall  from  time  to  time  nominate  to  exercise 
and  execute  the  powers  and  authorities  to  him  or  them 
hereby  given  and  granted  or  menconed  or  intended  to  be 
given  and  granted  in  and  about  the  premisses  dureing  the  said 
Terme  of  Twenty  one  yeares  and  Wee  doe  hereby  also  for 
us  our  heires  and  successors  strictly  prohibit  and  forbid  all 
and  every  person  and  persons  whatsoever  (other  then  the  said 
Thomas  Neale  his  executors  administrators  and  assignes  and 
such  person  or  persons  as  he  or  they  shall  nominate  as  afore 
said)  to  sett  up  exercise  or  execute  the  like  Office  or  Offices 
within  the  Iselands  Colonys  and  Plantations  aforesaid  or  any 
of  them  at  any  time  or  times  within  or  during  the  continu 
ance  of  the  said  Terme  of  one  and  Twenty  yeares  hereby 
granted  provided  alwaies  that  nothing  in  these  p'sents  con 
tained  shall  extend  or  be  construed  to  extend  to  restreyne 


30 

any  merchants  masters  or  others  from  sending  any  letters  or 
pacquetts  to  or  from  the  said  Plantations  or  Colonys  or  any 
of  them  by  any  masters  of  Ships  or  other  vessells  or  by  any 
other  person  or  persons  which  such  merchants  masters  or 
others  will  specially  imploy  or  intrust  for  the  carriage  of  the 
same  according  to  their  respective  direccons  And  the  said 
Thomas  Neale  Doth  for  himselfe  his  executors  administrators 
and  assignes  covenant  promise  and  grant  to  and  with  us  our 
heires  and  successors  by  these  presents  that  he  the  said 
Thomas  Neale  his  executors  administrators  or  assignes  or 
such  person  or  persons  as  he  or  they  shall  nominate  as  afore 
said  shall  and  will  from  time  to  time  upon  his  or  their  receipt 
or  receipts  of  any  letters  or  Pacquetts  which  shall  be  directed 
into  the  said  Iselands  Colonyes  and  Plantations  or  any  of 
them  from  England  or  any  other  parts  or  from  any  parts  or 
places  within  the  said  Iselands  Colonyes  or  Plantations  to  any 
other  parts  or  places  within  the  same  cause  the  said  letters  or 
Pacquetts  to  be  forthwith  dispersed  carried  and  delivered  in 
the  severall  parts  of  the  said  Iselands  Colonies  and  Planta 
tions  as  they  shall  be  directed  and  from  time  to  time  as  he 
they  or  any  of  them  shall  collect  or  receive  any  letters  or 
Pacquetts  to  be  sent  from  the  said  Plantations  Islands  or  Col 
onyes  or  any  of  them  for  England  shall  dispatch  and  send 
away  the  same  by  the  first  Ship  that  shall  be  bound  for  any 
Port  of  England  to  be  there  delivered  to  the  next  Deputy 
Postmaster  as  aforesaid  and  where  any  letters  or  Pacquetts 
shall  be  directed  from  any  of  the  said  Colonies  Islands  or 
Plantations  to  some  other  of  them  that  he  or  they  shall  dis 
patch  and  send  away  the  same  according  to  the  respective 
direccons  by  the  first  conveniency  of  carriage  or  conveyance 
thereof  and  that  these  services  shall  be  performed  with  care 
and  without  any  neglect  or  delay  at  the  rates  before  men 
tioned  And  the  said  Thomas  Neale  doth  further  for  himselfe 
his  executors  administrators  and  assignes  covenant  promise 
and  grant  to  and  with  us  our  heires  and  successors  by  these 
presents  That  he  the  said  Thomas  Neale  his  executors 
administrators  or  assignes  shall  and  will  at  his  and  their  own 
costs  and  charges  keep  accounts  in  bookes  fairely  written  of 
all  the  sumes  of  money  and  profitts  whatsoever  ariseing  in 


f       -..  • 

U 


31 

every  yeare  by  the  Office  imployment  or  businesse  aforesaid 
and  of  all  charges  thereupon  and  shall  suffer  the  said  Bookes 
to  be  inspected  from  time  to  time  and  coppies  thereof  or  notes 
out  of  the  same  to  be  taken  by  such  person  or  persons  as  the 
Comissioners  of  the  Treasury  or  High  Treasurer  of  England 
for  the  time  being  shall  appoint  and  shall  and  will  within  the 
Twentieth  yeare  of  the  said  Terme  of  twenty  one  yeares 
hereby  granted  produce  the  said  Bookes  themselves  or  soe 
many  of  them  as  shall  be  then  made  to  the  Comissioners  of 
the  Treasury  or  High  Treasurer  of  England  then  being  To 
the  end  he  or  they  may  have  certaine  knowledge  of  the  yearly 
value  of  the  said  Office  or  Offices  for  the  future  benefitt  of  us 
our  heires  and  successors  And  further  that  such  publique 
orders  as  the  Governors  of  the  said  respective  Plantacons 
Islands  or  Colonies  from  time  to  time  shall  issue  out  for  the 
Imediate  service  of  us  our  heires  and  successors  shall  be  dis- 
patcht  and  distributed  by  the  said  respective  Offices  without 
any  charge  Provided  that  noe  person  or  persons  whatsoever 
shall  be  capable  of  exerciseing  the  said  Office  or  Offices  or 
any  of  them  or  any  Deputacon  relateing  thereunto  untill  he 
or  they  doe  first  take  the  oathes  appointed  by  the  Act  of 
Parliament  made  in  the  first  yeare  of  our  reigne  Entituled 
(An  Act  for  the  abrogateing  the  Oathes  of  Supremacy  and 
allegiance  and  appointing  other  oathes)  Provided  alsoe  that  if 
it  shall  at  any  time  hereafter  be  made  appeare  to  us  our 
heires  or  successors  that  this  our  grant  is  inconvenient  to  our 
subjects  in  generall  or  that  the  powers  hereby  granted  or 
mentioned  to  be  granted  or  mentioned  to  be  granted  or  any 
of  them  is  or  are  abused  That  then  it  shall  and  may  be  law- 
full  to  and  for  us  our  heires  and  successors  by  any  order  of 
or  made  in  our  or  their  Privy  Councill  to  revoake  determine 
and  make  void  these  our  Letters  Patents  and  every  clause 
power  and  thing  therein  contained  any  thing  to  the  contrary 
thereof  in  any  wise  notwithstanding  Provided  further  that  if 
the  said  Thomas  Neale  his  executors  administrators  or 
assignes  shall  not  within  the  space  of  two  yeares  next  after 
the  date  of  these  our  Letters  Patents  establish  the  Post  or 
Office  thereby  intended  within  the  Colonys  Islands  and  Plan 
tations  aforesaid  according  to  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of 


32 

these  Presents  Then  this  our  grant  and  every  power  matter 
and  thing  therein  contained  shall  cease  and  be  void  any  thing 
to  the  contrary  thereof  in  any  wise  notwithstanding  And  the 
said  Thomas  Neale  doth  for  himselfe  his  executors  adminis 
trators  and  assignes  covenant  promise  and  grant  to  and  with 
us  our  heires  and  successors  that  all  letters  or  Pacquetts  col 
lected  or  received  in  any  of  the  Plantations  Iselands  or  Col- 
onys  aforesaid  to  be  sent  for  England  shall  from  time  to  time 
be  carefully  put  up  and  dispatched  away  by  the  first  Ship 
bound  for  any  Port  of  England  to  be  delivered  by  the  next 
Deputy  Postmaster  in  England  without  any  charge  to  the 
Post  Office  here  excepting  and  reserveing  unto  us  our  heires 
and  successors  the  English  Inland  Postage  of  all  such  letters 
and  Pacquetts  last  mentioned  to  be  sent  for  England  It  being 
hereby  intended  and  declared  that  the  same  shall  not  be 
accounted  for  to  the  said  Thomas  Neale  his  executors  admin 
istrators  or  assignes  but  that  he  and  they  shall  and  is  and  are 
hereby  obliged  to  satisfie  and  pay  the  masters  of  such 
vessells  for  such  conveyance  and  delivery  of  such  letters 
and  pacquetts  as  shall  be  sent  for  England  as  aforesaid  and 
alsoe  that  he  the  said  Thomas  Neale  his  executors  ad 
ministrator  or  assignes  shall  and  will  at  his  and  their  owne 
proper  costs  and  charges  nominate  and  appoint  a  sufficient 
Officer  in  our  City  of  London  to  receive  and  collect  from  time 
to  time  all  letters  and  Pacquetts  for  any  of  our  Colonys  or 
Plantations  aforesaid  and  to  take  care  to  send  them  duely 
away  from  time  to  time  by  the  first  vessell  bound  for  any  of 
those  Parts  And  further  that  all  letters  comonly  called  State 
letters  which  are  usually  carried  Postage  free  here  in  England 
shall  pass  free  thorow  all  our  Plantations  and  Iselands  afore 
said  And  further  alsoe  that  he  the  said  Thomas  Neale  his 
executors  administrators  or  assignes  shall  and  will  at  the  end 
of  the  first  three  yeares  next  ensueing  after  the  date  of  these 
Presents  transmitt  or  cause  to  be  transmitted  to  the  Com- 
issioners  of  the  Treasury  or  High  Treasurer  of  England  for 
the  time  being  a  true  and  faithfull  account  in  writeing  upon 
oath  of  the  whole  profitts  and  advantage  ariseing  or  accrew- 
ing  by  and  the  charge  of  settling  and  mannageing  the  said 
Office  or  Offices  herein  before  granted  or  mentioned  to  be 


33 

granted  and  established  and  shall  and  will  alsoe  keep  true  and 
faithful  accounts  in  writeing  of  all  the  receipts  and  charges 
aforesaid  relating  to  the  said  Office  or  Imployment  and  that 
from  and  after  the  expiracon  of  the  said  Three  yeares  next 
ensueing  after  the  date  of  this  our  Grant  the  like  account  shall 
be  yearly  transmitted  as  aforesaid  if  thereunto  required  And 
for  the  better  excution  of  the  powers  and  direccons  herein 
contained  Wee  have  given  and  granted  and  by  these  Presents 
for  us  our  heires  and  successors  doe  give  and  grant  unto  the 
said  Thomas  Neale  his  executors  administrators  and  assignes 
full  power  and  authority  from  time  to  time  dureing  the  said 
Terme  of  twenty  one  yeares  to  sett  up  make  use  and  have 
Ferrys  over  any  River  or  Lake  in  our  said  Colonies  Iselands 
or  Plantations  where  noe  Ferrys  are  yet  made  nor  any  grant 
thereof  made  or  given  to  any  other  person  or  persons  by  us 
or  any  of  our  Predecessors  for  the  better  conveyance  of  Post 
age  and  Passengers  as  need  shall  require  and  to  receive  and 
take  the  Profitts  and  advantage  comeing  or  ariseing  by  such 
Ferrys  to  the  use  and  benefitt  of  him  the  said  Thomas  Neale 
his  executors  administrators  and  assignes  provided  always  and 
our  will  and  pleasure  is  and  Wee  do  here  for  us  our  heires 
and  successors  Declare  that  in  all  cases  where  such  Ferry 
or  Ferrys  are  to  be  sett  up  and  made  over  other  Persons  land 
or  water  the  Proprietor  or  Proprietors  thereof  shall  be  first 
agreed  with  and  his  and  their  consent  gained  therein  accord 
ing  to  Law  and  Justice  In  Witnesse  &c  Witnesse  ourselves 
at  Westm  the  seaventeenth  day  of  February 

By  Writt  of  Privy  Seale. 

I  certify  that  the  foregoing  is  a  true  and  authentic  copy  :— 

R.  DOUGLAS  TRIMMER 
Assistant  Keeper  of  the  Public  Records 
I  February  1894 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 

AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 


MAY    6  1940 


LD21-100m-7,'39(402s) 


Photomounf 
Pamphlet 

Binder 
Gaylord  Bros. 

Makers 
Syracuse,  N.  Y 

PAT.  JAN  21,  1908 


578854 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


